Tomato nostalgia as I relive my Croatian island childhood

He would bring the results and leave them in the kitchenette, with instructions to wash them thoroughly.

They are the best that I have ever tasted.

When I was a child my grandmother grew tomatoes that were truly delicious. She used to pick them just at the right time when they were ripe-red and lusciously sweet on the outside but just retained a hint of green on the inside. This gave them a slightly acidic edge that one just doesn't get with over-ripe tomatoes or ones that are ripened slowly. I'd add that the ideal ripening also requires good sunshine.

Her tomatoes just spoiled me forever, I've never been satisfied with tomatoes purchased in shops, whilst some are just OK most commercial tomatoes are tasteless compared with ones that are freshly picked at their optimal ripeness.

It seems to me there's no ideal solution when it comes to commercially distributed tomatoes, they have to be picked before they're at optimal ripeness for efficient transport and distribution and it's just fact that tomatoes just don't ripen off the vine to give them that luscious taste of vine-ripened ones.

Frankly, I find some canned tomatoes better than ones that one buys in shops, they definitely can have more flavor. Canned tomatoes like those from Italian canning companies such as Mutti retain flavor because they are picked at just the right time then canned immediately. That this is noticeable even after the canning process shows just how critical it is to pick tomatoes at their optimal ripeness.

These days I get most of my tomatoes in the form of small cherry tomatoes, they at least retain some of their flavor after the distribution process.

When I can get good tomatoes - my favourite thing is to have them on toast. Just slice the tomato, put it on some toast with butter, (or olive oil). Breakfast, lunch, dinner... it's simple but delicious.

Anna Bay, just north of Newcastle in NSW, Australia used to have fantastic tomatoes. It was renowned in the region for it's fantastic tomatoes. The area had a huge flood of Italian immigrants just post WW2, and they brought the tomatoes with them.

You'd see a few little road-side stalls on the road to Nelson Bay. The supermarkets took over and those little stalls disappeared. Then some opportunistic folks set up stalls using commercially grown tomatoes from others selling them as Anna Bay tomatoes, but they're not the same.

Unfortunately this tactic seems to be becoming more common. We found someone selling Peaches and Nectarines by the side of the road. They offered us a sample, it was amazing. We bought two boxes at a reasonable price, they were almost all awful. Had the same thing with Cherries.

Errr, umm, what? Yes, there is a category of cooked salsas, but 99% of the salsa I’ve ever had that didn’t come from a jar wasn’t cooked. I don’t recall ever getting a cooked tomato salsa in a Mexican, Mexi-Cali, or any other southwest restaurant.

Do Europeans really cook all their salsa???

Also, salsa is one of the 3 greatest destinies a delicious tomato could aspire to.